One of Roosevelt School’s famous alumni was William Marshall (pictured here). The son of Thelma Marshall, a well-known leader in her own right in Gary’s African American community, William Marshall was an actor, starring in several “Blaxploitation” films of the 1970s as the character “Blacula,” a take-off on the famous horror figure “Dracula.” As you can see from the advertisement above, William Marshall did not forget his roots, as he portrayed the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass in a play that was performed in Gary.